Tokyo to Bangalore

Tokyo to Bangalore

In the late 1980s to early ’90s it was the information technology (IT) companies from Silicon Valley of USA who moved to Bangalore, and now the University of Tokyo, the oldest of Japanese varsities with several Nobel laureates to its credit, has opened its office in the city of Bangalore, which is nicknamed the Silicon Valley of India.  Read more

Panama’s East-West Duo

Panama's East-West Duo

The Republic of Panama, a country which connects the world by disconnecting itself, is all set to become a biotech niche. This is in part due to the charismatic duo Dr. Ruben Berrocal, educated in the West (USA), and Dr. Jagannatha Rao, hailing from the East (India). These two have ambitious plans to make the country a knowledge and science hub.  Read more

Multipotent scientists survive in tough times

Multipotent scientists survive in tough times

It’s not always sunny for start-ups in healthcare biotech. And when the weather gets bad, one should either go dormant or find places with the right climate.  We can learn this lesson from Prof. Yuichi Mori and Dr. Hiroshi Yoshioka, the polymer-biology duo from Waseda University, Japan.  Read more

The “Electric-Biology” duo

The "Electric-Biology" duo

Two old pals, once classmates at Minami-Oei Primary School in Osaka city of Japan, never would have dreamt that they will jointly work to develop a commercially successful disinfectant six decades later. One of them, Sunao Kubota, became a physician and professor of General Surgery in St. Marianna University School of Medicine, and the second, Nobuyuki Yamaji, became an electro physicist with Kyoto University. Yamaji was working on the implications of electric shock or lightning on plants and mammalian tissues, and Kubota was busy with his surgical work, trying to find a solution for his skin-allergy to alcohol. It was  … Read more

Academic Serendipity to Clinical, Commercial Success

Academic Serendipity to Clinical, Commercial Success

I always say to my colleagues “Success has no formula, but failure does.” Often, biotech spin-offs yield more in experience than they do history. But I would like to share the story of a colleague of mine who went from a humble academic job in the microbiology department in a national university to a clinical success story. His lab in Tokyo is now providing cell-based immunotherapy via 6,000 transfusions a year, from all over Japan and from neighboring countries. Hiroshi Terunuma started his career as a medical microbiologist in the Yamanashi University School of Medicine in the late ’90s, when  … Read more

Malaysian BIONEXUS incentives

Malaysian BIONEXUS incentives

As we started our work in Japan in 2000 on nano-scaffolds for corneal limbal stem cells (jointly with a group of polymer scientists headed by Yuichi Mori), the very first strategic move was to start collaborating in India, for two reasons. One was we needed a solution for treatable corneal epithelial damage-related blindness, and the other was the availability of qualified and skilled corneal surgeons. The next move was to have a technology transfer tie with Malaysia, simply because the local investors there were willing to invest their hard-earned money in a biotech venture focused on a personalized immune-cell-based cancer  … Read more

Virtual Professorship at Work; the SMART Initiative

Virtual Professorship at Work; the SMART Initiative

The days when the physical presence of a professional in the place of work or a meeting was mandatory are gradually becoming extinct, in the same mode that Brachiosaurus faded from planet Earth. Communication technologies have revolutionized the way meetings happen, and there isn’t the need to always physically gather at one place. If meetings can be made virtual, deals struck and businesses flourish without the need for physical presence and proximity, why can’t ideas ignite minds across the biotech world, and why can’t researchers be tracked in remote control? The Singapore-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alliance for Research and Technology  … Read more

Reverse brain drain and the Indian biotech “niche”

Reverse brain drain and the Indian biotech "niche"

For the past few years, we have received significantly more resumes from native Indian post-doctoral fellows from the US, searching for opportunities in India, which tickled me to explore the phenomenon of “reverse-brain-drain” in India and the biotech field. This phenomenon became popular after the dot-com bubble crisis, which forced many IT professionals from Silicon Valley to return to India. In my opinion, China has gained a lot with the reverse brain drain phenomenon in biotech, as evident by the number of publications in high impact journals. The “knowledge-hub” creation-oriented governmental policies could be a major contributor. However, the situation  … Read more